title: Multimicroscopic study of curcumin effect on fixed nonmalignant and cancerous mammalian epithelial cells.
abstract: The morphology changes, in particular the organization of microtubules in mammalian nonmalignant HMEC 184A1 and cancerous MCF-7 cells during curcumin treatment have been investigated by utilizing multiphoton, fluorescence, and atomic force (AFM) microscopies. Fluorescence microscopy reveals formation of ring-like structures of microtubules circumscribing the nuclear area in HMEC 184A1 cells after treatment, while in MCF-7 cells, no important changes were observed. Topography analyses of fixed HMEC 184A1 and MCF-7 before and after treatment with curcumin were performed using AFM and the effect of the employed cells' fixation method was investigated on MCF-7 cells. Due to its indepth optical sectioning capacity multiphoton microscopy provided valuable complementary information on curcumin's effect on both cells' types. Combining information provided by AFM and optical fluorescence and biphoton microscopes allows us to gain a better understanding of the cells and their curcumin-induced changes, especially for microtubules which are the main target of antitumor chemotherapy treatments. Our multimicroscopic study demonstrates that 6 h incubation with curcumin does not induce significant modifications in the interphase microtubules in the malignant MCF7cell, whereas it has measurable effects on those of the nonmalignant HMEC 184A1 cells, revealing also morphology modifications over the nuclear area of these cells.
authors.affiliation: Université Montpellier 2, Laboratoire Charles Coulomb UMR 5221, F-34095 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: Marie-belle
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Saab
authors.forename: Elias
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Estephan
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bec
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Larroque
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aulombard
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cloitre
authors.forename: Csilla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gergely
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D003474:Curcumin / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D042361:Mammary Glands, Human / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008870:Microtubules / Q000187:drug effects; D017785:Photons
chemical_list: D003474:Curcumin